AM3+ Hex Core's Black Edition FX6100's for under £90!

[shaithis]

Well, all installed...and I must say the results are better then expected.

For the workload I am throwing at them (nearly all back-end server stuff), they are substantially more efficient then the Athlon IIs in there previously. The old Athlon IIs were 3.3GHz, the same as the FX6100s, which gives a fairly nice static reference point. I can see already that the processor utilisation on the cluster is 30%+ lower then pre-upgrade....once they have been in a full week I should have some more concrete data...in fact DRS has not seen fit to move any VMs around since doing the swap-out and there used to be 2 scheduled maintenance tasks that every day would always cause a DRS to shuffle my VMs between hosts due to CPU contention issues.

[GeorgeStorm]

Would people recommend one of these over an intel counterpart?
Currently looking at upgrading from llano, don't really want to spend more than £200, are any of AMD's offerings worth it?

[shaithis]

Would people recommend one of these over an intel counterpart?
Currently looking at upgrading from llano, don't really want to spend more than £200, are any of AMD's offerings worth it?

It depends on what the usage is....

[GeorgeStorm]

General usage, gaming, photo editing.

[shaithis]

General use - no
Photo editing - debatable.....are you working on any images that are causing issues?
Gaming - Very possible gains from either AMD or Intel. Which games are you playing? (and which ones are struggling with performance?)

[GeorgeStorm]

Lightroom feels sluggish at times, both browsing through images and when editing.

Gaming wise, I'm not struggling with anything in particular at the moment, but my brother is getting my llano stuff, so it seems a good chance to get a bit of an upgrade if possible.

[shaithis]

Well, they are cost effective, just not as good in some extreme situations with some of the CPU-heavy games as the Intel chips. Plus the Bulldozer chips on-the-whole aren't quite as good for gaming as the Phenom IIs they replaced.

I see scan have the P2 X6 1045T for ~£90, which seems very good value.....you might even find a P2 x4 955 or 965BE for ~£70 if you look around. Now, considering that the motherboards for these will be cheaper then their S1155 counterparts....they seem incredible value.

To be fair though, coming from a Llano + GTX570....the FX6xxx, FX8xxx, Phenom II X4 or X6 are all going to give you a noticeable boost.

[GeorgeStorm]

Sorry for the slight off topic, but I can get an i7 870 for £75, now that seems like rather a good deal?
And I'm only looking at matx/mitx boards, which changes the playing field slightly.

[shaithis]

Yes very good value, although the choice of boards is going to be slim now as that range has been EOL for a while now.

[scaryjim]

... I can get an i7 870 for £75 ...

Why is your money still in your pocket?!

That's a great price: yes your board choice will be a little restricted at this point, but you won't need to upgrade that CPU for years. Jump on it and worry about the motherboard later!

EDIT: here's your motherboard: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...n-board-mini-i
EDIT2: Hmmm, intel must've worked really hard to pull all the old 1156 boards, that's the only one I can find from a main retailer

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Secondhand or new Core i7 870??

[GeorgeStorm]

2nd hand obviously
I was intending on buying all my stuff 2nd hand if possible, save me monies.
Been offered a MSI H55M-ED55 for £35, or a Gigabyte H55N - USB3 mitx board for £40, which would be the better choice?

[scaryjim]

How small do you want your computer to be?

I'd go for the Gigabyte, but then I like mitx computers. The power phases on both boards look pretty similar; obviously the MSI offers more flexibility and expansion options, whilst the Gigabyte offers a nice compact computer. Both are decent boards, so it's really down to personal preference.

[GeorgeStorm]

Well, some of you will have seen my thread in the audio section about what to do soundcard wise if I choose to go mitx, and I've come around to the idea of an external DAC/amp combo, although I think I'll be sticking to a matx case potentially, due to the only cases where I can fit all my hdds (4+ssd) are rather pricey (lian li, £100+)

So it's purely whichever is the better board, since even if I go for a matx case (such as the lian li v351 which I've been offered at a decent price) the extra room from going mitx can always be more room for something else

[Samwood]

2nd hand obviously
I was intending on buying all my stuff 2nd hand if possible, save me monies.
Been offered a MSI H55M-ED55 for £35, or a Gigabyte H55N - USB3 mitx board for £40, which would be the better choice?

Unless you know the seller I would advise buying 2nd hand - you just dont know what condition its in. It could even look completely fine, but for all you know the seller has been running it overclocked at 120*C 24/7 (all be it an extreme scenario).

[GeorgeStorm]

Advise against I presume you mean?

Well, I've bought most of my pc stuff in the last couple of years 2nd hand since there's no way I could have afforded it new.
I tend to buy and sell quite often (only got this llano setup at the beginning of the year) so it's not a big worry, and I will be asking him about how he's treated it etc, he's a member on another forum who's been around a while so should be ok